1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cap apparatus for a liquid jetting head, and a liquid jetting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink-jet printer has hitherto been known as an example of a liquid jetting apparatus which jets a liquid from nozzles in a liquid jetting head. In the ink-jet printer, there is a possibility that jetting quality is affected by blocking of nozzles due to mixing of air in an ink, evaporation of an ink solvent, and thickening of ink inside an ink-jet head. Therefore, the ink-jet printer is provided with a cap apparatus for carrying out a purge operation by restoring the nozzles by sucking forcibly the ink from the nozzles of the ink-jet head (for example refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-62202).
As it has been described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-62202, the cap apparatus includes a cap which is made of a cross-sectional recess shaped elastic material which seals the nozzles of the ink-jet head, a cap holder having a recessed shape in a cross-section which accommodates the cap, an ink absorber which is accommodated inside the cap, and a holder which holds the ink absorber. At the time of sucking of the ink-jet head, with the nozzles of the ink-jet head sealed by a surrounding portion of an opening of the cap, a suction pump which communicates with the cap apparatus depressurizes a sealed space inside the cap by a suction pressure, and the thickened ink inside the ink-jet head, or ink mixed with air bubbles is sucked from the nozzle. Moreover, the cap apparatus also plays a role of preserving the nozzles by preventing drying of the ink inside the ink-jet head by cutting off a nozzle surface of the ink-jet head from an atmosphere by sealing the nozzle surface, when the ink-jet printer is in non-printing state.